temperance; and to temperance, patience; and to patience, godli ness; and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity:" "Put off, concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Are all these easy to understand, throughout the wide expanse of their application? If understood; Are they easy in their fulfilment? I have not so learned Christ. I have thought, that for every admonition to believe, he had a hundred persuasives to virtue, and dissuasives from vice. And to what are we to attribute it, but to the prevailing disposition of the sinners of his time, so severely reproved in the words, "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?" Those titles they could give with the utmost facility, but how to perform that which was good, they knew not. Hard, inconscionably hard, to them was the saying, "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." This was the criterion by which his true followers were to be known. And did they fail to endure the trial? No loud, enthusiastick, and boisterous cry of Lord, Lord, could prevail with him to predict their final entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

On the whole therefore, Brethren, it would evidently appear, from the numerous considerations, which have been presented, that it is far easier to believe than to obey. It may however be said, that the faith referred to is not genuine; that it is merely historical and speculative. But this, so far from answering the argument strongly confirms it; strongly proves, that no matter what may be the ardour, or what the orthodoxy of our professions, they can avail us nothing, unless they are accompanied by the more arduous fruits of a holy living. "Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” Will ye know, O ye preachers of the everlasting gospel, that, if from timid counsels, and an inclination to obtain a good report among men, ye are found to countenance a pernicious errour, by evincing an inordinate attachment to mere doctrinal discourses, and by refraining from inculcating those moral and religious duties, which are most difficult to be discharged, whether they relate to God or man, Will ye know, that, under these circumstances, ye deceive the hearts of the simple, and

that the consequences are extremely liable to prove supremely fatal to their present and future welfare?

For my own part, Brethren, so long as I am permitted to enjoy the honour of being an ambassador for Christ, this consideration will never be absent from my mind. I will use every precaution, lest any man's blood should be hereafter required at my hands, through an unpardonable failure to preach obedience, as the most important and comprehensive feature in the Christian life. I know that faith is essential; that it is imperative. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." I care not how strongly, how distinctly, it is enforced. But in what manner is it to be secured? You must not speak to me of a surer mode than this; through obedience. "If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself. He that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory: but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him. Did not Moses give you the law, and yet none of you keepeth the law?"

What better evidence then can be required of the extreme fallacy of extolling faith at the expense of works? The faithful and true Witness did not charge those Israelites with disbelief in God. He knew, that they believed in him, and in his word. But alas, like many modern professors, their faith was barren and unfruitful, and he therefore charged them with not keeping the law given by Moses. "He that hath an ear, let him hear;" let him say unto himself, as ye are doubtless all prepared to say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord," with all the remaining acknowledgments of the creed. But what of this? "What doth it profit, my Brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can faith save him?" Verily, verily, I say unto you, that "as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also." Ye must "adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things." Ye must "let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." The task is difficult, so difficult, when compared with simple faith, that I cannot but tremble for our common safety; I cannot but think, that its non-performance will prove the ruin of myriads, whose belief, re:

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sembling that of the scribes and Pharisees, would secure a similar commendation from our gracious Redeemer, "All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they SAY, and De not," Notwithstanding its difficulty, the task then must be executed. God requires it, and our final Judge hath said, "Behold I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give to every man according as his wORK shall be." Oh! that we might be universally prepared to meet him, with joy and not with grief; "that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts, we might live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." We should have no cause to regret it here below, and at length falling asleep in Jesus, we should in due time become partakers of the same joyful resurrection. "Blessed are they, that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city," the glorious CITY of their God. AMEN.

SERMON XXXIII.

REVELATION xiv. 11.

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever.

THE eternity of that punishment, with which Almighty God will hereafter requite the ungodly and the sinner, is the subject of the present discourse. Do you ask me, Brethren, why a theme so repugnant to the feelings, so diametrically at war with the desires and inclinations of the heart, should be selected by the Christian minister, and enforced upon the solemn and serious attention of his audience? I demand of you, in reply: Why the considerate parent is accustomed to address himself to the hopes and fears of his children? Why, at the dawn of paternal authority, does he talk of reward and punishment, reward to the obedient, punishment to the disobedient? The former is unquestionably pleasing and encouraging to the young aspirant, desirous of basking in the soft sunshine of a father's love; but the latter, how does

it chill the gushing tide of filial fondness! What painful appre hensions does it excite in the minds of truant youth returning from the pastime of forbidden pleasure! How many and how great the terrors, with which it clothes the paternal brow! Why then resort to it? Why venture on an expedient, so harsh and repulsive to the smiling features of childhood; so withering and oppressive to the gayety of youthful indulgence? You will perhaps tell me in the words of scripture, "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth;" ere he can be supposed to comprehend the evil results of early transgression; the certainty with which it blasts the fair promise of our blooming spring, and entails upon the winter of our age a host of calamities, terrible to contemplate, more terrible to endure.

Yes, Brethren, upon these principles, you would justify threats, you would justify coercion; and you do threaten, you do coerce. Those of you that are fathers would otherwise seldom realize the truth of the psalmist's declaration, "Lo children are a heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." They would not gladden your hearts by their virtues. They would scarcely fail by their vices to pierce them through and through with many sorrows. By this analogy, easy to understand and difficult to obviate, you are therefore put in possession of one of the most prominent of those inducements, which are ever inclining Christian ministers to startle the ear of conscience with a voice proceeding from the regions of despair, "I am tormented in this flame." And does it require some high authority to excuse our boldness? We gain it in the example of St. Paul, "knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." Nay, we gain it in the example of Christ himself, predicting the doom of the wicked, in the day of his second coming, to judge the world," Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." Deprive the pulpit of this awful language, and you would deprive it of the most powerful instrument, it wields for the conversion of sinners. Heaven and its glories would not prove an adequate substitute: For whether righteous or unrighteous, mankind would in either case enjoy its perpetu al felicity. But when righteousness alone tendeth to life, and unrighteousness to death, eternal; when the infallibility of these

truths is clearly and unanswerably established; the two passions of hope and of fear are alike excited. They constitute the throbbing pulses presented to the spiritual physician. Touch the one, and it is beguiled by the brightest visions; the other, and it is alarmed and terrified by the most horrid presentiments, that ever fill the human mind.

Imagine however, that, beyond the grave, all was heaven: Who would seriously devote himself to the attainment of its already certain joys? Imagine, that all was hell: Who would vainly strive to avoid its sure perdition? Alas, Brethren, when their combined appeal too often fails to search the spirit, and improve the heart, it is easy to anticipate the general depravity consequent upon the expulsion of either from the sacred records. But now, the desire of the soul to return to God, who gave it, is materially quickened by an anxiety to flee from the wrath to come. It even requires less fortitude to forego the idea of future happiness, than to be reconciled to the thought of endless and unutterable wo. It is wise then, in the ambassadors of Christ, to speak openly and freely upon this appalling theme. It evinces a love for souls, that is neither neutralized by the modified censures of the gay and inconsiderate, nor abashed and confounded by the severer rebukes of the scorner. And as to the effect; if men will not be won to obedience by the inspiring promises of the gospel, they are not unfrequently plucked, as brands from the burning, by calm and temperate views of the pains and penalties of eternal death. They may be fond of sin; but for its wages they have no sympathy. They may be content to wear its insignia upon their foreheads; but to rest not day nor night, to be tho roughly persuaded, that, upon final impenitence, "the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever;" all this has a wonderful tendency" to loose the bands of wickedness;" to prevail with them to cast off its galling chains; and, with new thoughts and new desires, to strive earnestly for the new heart and the new spirit, so loudly demanded in holy oracles.

At the very threshold of this argument, I am however met by the old, I wish it were universally considered the stale, device, "Ye shall not surely die," dressed up, and, if possible, gilded with additional art and subtlety. For has the world become too enlightened to be as easily duped, as our first parents were, by the smooth and honied accents of the Prince of lies? In the room of entire indem